Fourth home study visit

Well...we survived our family pictures on Saturday!  Our 4 y/o was less than cooperative but I'm holding out hope that our photographer was able to get some decent shots.  I will share a pic or two on here when I have them!

Kevin had his individual session with our social worker, this morning.  He didn't say much about it so I'm assuming it went well.  Our social worker will now start writing up our home study!  When she comes for the home visit on April 3, she will ask any remaining questions she has and check a few things in our home (I'm assuming).  This will be the first time she gets to meet the kids.  Let's hope it goes well!

After the April 3rd visit, our social worker will take a couple more weeks to finish writing our home study.  If I have this straight in my mind, the next step will be for her to send it to our adoption agency.  They will spend about a week looking it over and making sure it meets all Hague and China requirements.  If they see a need for any additions and/or changes, they will let her know.  Once our adoption agency approves it, we must get approval from the state of IL.  I am not sure how long this typically takes so I am going to ask our social worker.  I believe the home study then goes back to our adoption agency before coming to us.  I feel like it will be a small miracle when we finally get the finished document in our hands!

We are still waiting to hear back from our adoption agency regarding the specifics of the China pre-adoption education we still need.  I expected to hear back Monday or Tuesday, so I just sent another email to ask about it.  Hopefully, they won't think I'm too impatient!  Haha!

Kevin and I have started having a lot of adoption related dreams.  I guess it makes sense that our brains would be sorting through adoption thoughts and concerns while we sleep.  I can't tell you how many pregnancy/baby dreams I had during each of my 3 pregnancies!

I've told a couple more people about our plans to adopt a Waiting Child from China.  Most people have no idea we've been thinking/dreaming about this for so long, so they are surprised when we tell them.  I'm sure it seems sudden to them.  Because of this, it has felt different from making a pregnancy announcement.  The reactions have been positive- usually a congrats or questions about the process- but lacking in excitement (except for my mom).  However, my closest friends, who have known about my desire to adopt for a long time, are thrilled for us.